By a 16-2 vote, a measure that would curb perceived overreach by public and private land conservators sailed through the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources on Wednesday.

The Virginia Conservation Easement Reform Act, sponsored by Del. Brenda L. Pogge, R-James City, would give the Virginia Conservation Land Foundation, a public body, the authority to mediate between land owners and private land conservation trusts.

RICHMOND – A Republican legislator from Williamsburg is pushing for a law to require the state attorney general to defend the Virginia Constitution – which the current officeholder, Democrat Mark Herring, declined to do regarding the commonwealth’s ban on same-sex marriage.

House Bill 1573, which was proposed last week by Del. Brenda Pogge, would add this passage to state law:

“Except in cases where it would be improper for the Attorney General’s office to render legal services due to a conflict of interests, the Attorney General has the duty to represent the interests of the Commonwealth in any proceeding in which the constitutionality or validity of a provision of the Constitution of Virginia or of any law or regulation of the Commonwealth is contested or at issue.”

Del. Brenda Pogge (R-96) was going to carry a bill to the General Assembly that would legalize hemp for industrial purposes, but when she learned a colleague in the House of Delegates was already working on such a bill, she decided to join his effort.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to open up the farmlands of Virginia that are being hurt now,” she said, noting declining tobacco production across the state. “This is a crop that has so much potential. It can be made into so many different things.”